Rio Ferdinand on what it was really like in the Man Utd dressing room | High Performance Podcast

liters. I want to get over that. I have done it at the same time. I want to beat his record. I have seen them as great players. I want, I want more than them, people, I want more. than the jobs he has when he's retired, but you never retired, but Jermaine, you, then, are always sitting as a target of people that you want to get over and if there's someone who's detrimental to them, chances are I'm going to go after them. . And you talk about FIFO adjustment inside or outside the base, yes, that's great, but I think the difficult thing about that is that people need a FIFO, but also in a football team or in any environment, and you know if there are business leaders.

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, they are trying to create an environment where Mavericks, leaders, and people with amazing skills can participate and contribute to the environment instead of being crushed by it. I think it's a pretty difficult thing to do well, isn't it? hard because I think Wolford ZahaGreat talent, great individual talent and maybe it's because of his maturity that he never had success at Manchester United and I think neither the club nor the management helped him at that time, but he is a player that I was in , regularly. and he probably said he would say now looking back and turning back was for me, but it was for the betterment of the team, it wasn't because I had a personal problem with him or anything like that.

I saw that he could be a great asset. I thought he needed this and that and I want to try to put it on him and communicate with him every day, but at the same time he may not be mature enough at that moment to take on all that, so maybe he has that wrong, I don't know, Which brings me to a question about leadership, so it sounds like you were pretty strident. If someone doesn't put down the mustard, you call them right away or, as you say, make fun of them for a change. him, how much space do you think they would have had in that environment for someone to put their arm around his shoulder and take care of someone he hadn't met?

Maybe you need to not, sorry, Ferguson was good at that, but the lion was Christiano. I went into one for a couple of days Shyama whiskey, his father had passed away, sorry, Ferguson gave me. I think a few days off I went back to Portugal and I'm sitting there thinking he's as bad an eBay as he is and now I look back. I'm thinking we need to be a little softer, but at one point I'm thinking we need him more this weekend because of the way we need to beat him in this big game, he should be training, why doesn't he train than when we? is

what

's happening, we need, we need all of us together to testify together and that's how difficult it was and in some ways it wasn't and you're in that bubble of relentless desire to win that you don't see, you're not seeing clearly enough to In fact, sometimes I appreciate the emotions, so it becomes a game where sometimes you need someone, that's why you need a good coaching staff, you need people from outside, you can go, you know, we did it and come, take this side a minute, look at it through this prism. a little bit of yourself through this lens and guides you to

really

understand other people's situations, like in the locker

room

.

You wouldn't know who is stressed or going through some problem in their life. 99 times I turn right because it is not an environment that allows people to let out that emotion it is so healthy seen as pleasant weakness so we talk about mental health today it is a massive and fashionable word in our society no you were not out conversation I don't know, I'm not in the locker

room

at the moment so I wouldn't know, but I know that at the moment someone is in the corner crying. He would have been one of the first to go.

Oh he's crying go get a doctor doc doc he's crying like he's peeing so when you transitioned. From that environment to the real world, how did you find that transition? Because that kind of behavior can come across as a fake sociopath, you're in care and working in a normal office, yes, like we were and we talked about it a lot, abandoned, no. If you don't work in the offices, don't you go to Human Resources to receive reports? So how have you made that transition? Because you're obviously successful in a lot of different ways that we talked about before we got here.

Awareness and whether there is enough awareness to understand the use. your environment that you're in and

what

the rules are, what the differences are from what you used to do and just educate yourself on that and be aware because if it's not some mistakes, do you have some examples of mistakes that you've made? ? It wasn't done in the workplace, working with Beatty where we were, you're probably too smart or intelligent or think too much or in a condition to be aware, yeah, okay, I think the condition to be aware is probably the best way to Say it because I would.

It doesn't sound too smart or too polite. I have been conditioned to know that there is danger at the end of every word or action you make. Yes, he swears in the studio. Anyone should. Yes, he's probably one of those there. So we talked like you say off the air about this that word awareness can affect the end of your career and then, because I often talk to athletes about this and the two examples that I often use are, if it seems like I was in the UK, we can go out like Eric Conn where you come out on top and every month more than your part mmm or you can go out like Muhammad Ali where everyone feels a little sorry when you're fighting with Trevor Berbick in the parking lot like a guy who later that seemed to be conscious.

I often find it quite strange that his career ended in a bit of failure when he left United and the ignominious circumstances after that day at Southampton and then going to QPR seemed like a bit of a strange move I think. that the circumstances, although there was a backstory in a sleeve of my personal life, staying busy and at work was important, but the way my career at Manchester United ended was almost as if the book was not closed. I didn't even say prejudice or bigots, there hasn't been a part of the path to happiness, well, you usually have an idea if you're going to get a new job or not.

I have one where the other before the last one off season, listen, we. There is no one who goes to your CEO. Edward would come to you normally and leave. We're not going to give you a deal or we know you're not going to sign, so he's looking for pastures for the new boss of the season. I didn't get either of those things. The last time they aired it was a season with a Southampton game finale and I went into a

dressing

room and the managers and stuff would always come into the

dressing

room home and away and just shake hands with the players, so what we chatted about and Edward entered. and then he just stood next to me Ed Wood Wood or sat next to me at that time after the game my boots will sit etc. and he just said listen, you know we're not going to renew your contract, thank you for your services at the club you're free to go and talk to other clubs and what I do and I thought: wow, I like that for someone who had done with his nose , you know, that's what I thought, surely you could have warned me sooner. and then it might have had a good buyer if you sold it to fans.

I did it at a later date, yeah, but at the time I was just numb, I just sat there like a wall, I actually thought because I came so late in the season that it was the last day of the season, I thought, well, there's probably going to be a Ralph here somewhere doing something we were playing or training or whatever, or they will be given the option to do something because sure You would have told me before this day, but it never happened and I felt like I deserved to be able to say goodbye to the fans , from the club people, from the CAF ladies dinner at the reception, well they just weren't allowed that kind of Dude, that was the time to do that and I was bitter about a little wife.

I'm honest, they talked to me for an hour about elite environments and how to bring people into the culture of winning and that's what

really

made me start thinking like that. "When this place is not managed properly, this is not the best team in the country and Europe in the world that I consider should be doing things and then I see the way people like other players that I have worked for ten or more years in clubs, I left his club and I thought, "I didn't understand this, this is crazy and I felt that." When we talk about that period when the culture was really active and

high

performance

, how did people manage? the outputs then?

So when it was something, examples of people or like, how was their output different from yours? I don't know, I don't look at my people like that, no, I won't go, let me compare. , town, she is probably a better example. She had been told before not to log in. Yes, you can go somewhere else. It was the means of saying goodbye to everyone, thank you, great conversation with certain people, I had a great time. here, etc., the fans deservedly rejected it, so I'll spit watching it later, when I look back, thinking, well, I won't have that.

That Joe means maybe short-sighted someone didn't see it just overlooked it I don't know, do you think you know? There are plenty of players who could say that, apart from sitting at lunch John O'Shea, yeah, done. more than 10 years, where is Bran? What do you think a fool? Yeah, he came out like that with that bow and Fletcher probably knows that a lot of players came out like me like that, you have there to run numerous businesses in one of your restaurants now, whether it's magazines working in television your own clothing brand the social media stuff you've got a lot of stuff going on isn't that another kind of strangely lucky opportunity where we're shown the right way to do things?

It's fantastic, but sometimes we do it. a lesson in life the wrong way to do it is again a brilliant lesson for you personally because now you know when you work with other people how not to do it other people's feelings what other people are like you can see it and I think quickly about how they would react to that, no I know that and a lot of the decisions that I will make, whether through business and other things, that I'm involved in when I talk to people, I consider their feelings. I'm much more aware again of consciousness or much more aware of feelings and how I approach a situation and how they may feel when the situation has been addressed and I try to be very accommodating with a comment but with steel. enos too and but it's hard, it's not easy when you're in the middle of everything so sometimes you have to try and take a step back to do it, but I mean, going to QPR was probably one of the best things.

I did it because it's an honor to be a manager and I will continue in management for money at night, where it was a well-oiled machine for 12 or 13 years. I hadn't seen anything like instability or problems with how places operate. with my eyes closed, Fergie could be gone for a couple of days, there's no land we didn't know what it is mainly, but I have to stay with it and I saw a lot of things about how things shouldn't be managed, how things shouldn't be done, what was done wrong, so how should it not be done?

You learned? Their communication from the top to the bottom, but in a place where no one communicated, no one sang from the same song where the Forester coaches, the staff and the players, the players believe in management. and you told me that it surprised you, certainly the players were talking about money, yes, that simple thing like that, I had never talked about money in a locker room before in my life, none of this was like what you want, oh, I'm in I earn 60 thousand dollars a week, pip Anil. I want to sit here for three years.

Okay, I hear these kinds of conversations. I'm sitting there going, "Wow, what is this? This is foreign to me, that's why you are who you are." why you are here is why you have no more food potential than that, what do you have? Yes, I said conversation with the people I wanted to meet, talk because they listen, unfortunately, well, fortunately, on May night I was completely invested, committed to everything to win, yes. to be a successful man, I had it and when you go somewhere like QPR and you hear all this stuff and there's negativities flying around, it's like how did you commit to that, how did you invest in that and it gets exhausting and it's like? same guy nowhere so you almost tune out and say wow listen to these guys so you try to sneak people in listen to that situation you could have told us very differently. before back maybe we didn't like this yeah I know but I got stuck and at that moment the emotions got the best of me or some of them just didn't care so you're fighting a losing battle and so it was oh wow This is the best thing I've ever done coming in it's the worst because I've had an overtime nightmare here but I've seen it now because I'm not going to come in and be a manager on my night right away I will I get to this kind of level or lower and I've seen how it can work and I'm much more aware again of what I'm getting into and that stopped you from going into management?

I will try, so today I wanted and I never saw the situation happen off the field with me in my private life. I decided I wasn't going to go into management and I won't go into management, so that whetted my appetite even more. I'm full of more. Now I have more weapons.I know what to expect. I wonder if what happened with the passing of your wife, your first wife, Rebecca, really means that, despite all the things you've done, all the things you've seen. Your successes again is something that no one wants to go through, but you are the type of person who learns from every opportunity or every eventuality in your life and this may be a reminder at the right time for you that after a amazing career, actually family and being there now for your kids and being there with Kay and maybe that will now become the most important thing in your life, yeah, it's 100% listen, you wouldn't wish that on anyone, yeah, probably the two or three years I have with my mother.

I also passed away. I was like, "You can't, that's not in the script, it shouldn't be in anyone's script, but then again I have three kids who are going to depend on me to make sure I get up and get out there." go again and I can be an inspiration to them, I could show them the steps in life and be that kind of person that they looked to for inspiration or guidance or just to watch and learn, like even guide in the gym, we got into a guy barback at the Gym, have you ever been early?

But my kids are leaving school to go to school work any time in the morning before 7 or 7 o'clock, whatever and they see me all dressed up to go to a gym and I'm walking in a gym while they go out . I'm not telling you to be healthy, I'm not telling you this is part of lasting there knowing it's a lifestyle and knowing that's why it's healthy and that's why Kate is healthy, this is part of it, you need watch and watch that replay. regularly doing this kind of thing that becomes a lifestyle is not safe and then I can ask them about something a little more personal than about that period of their lives when they want to set an example for their children in terms of habits. and things like what kind of help did you give them in terms of processing pain as deep and real as that over the time because I had to ask a lot of people, talk to a lot of people because it's something I wasn't aware of.

I didn't understand it. I had never had pain like that before so I didn't know that I couldn't convey information to my children and try to guide them without them informing me so I had to ask questions and that's why I did that documentary well because it was an informative process, it was therapeutic and there were many discoveries to help my children that would later help others and what were the main lessons that you learned from that lack of communication, you talk that you write today, I never used to say that to my children, it really is strange, but I , today, everything is fine, sit down, let's talk about if you miss something or someone or if you miss doing something, it's anything I can do to make you feel better and Eventually, Kate does that, what can we do?

Do you want to make one of us cry? You understand. I have a Kate and I spend time with just you and Kate. You had enough to do that, but so have your moments of communication and make the children start to understand and under that that process was enormous because communicating with my children as much as I was a disbeliever will communicate any wardrobe I want a great great communicator emotionally yes or at home it wasn't and and again I don't want this to be rude because it's deeply personal, but do you think that if you had the ability to ask people if you're okay, how you're doing in the locker room, that simple atmosphere could have been?

Even stronger and better, yeah, I think he probably could have helped someone like Anderson more if he had been a little softer. Anderson was incredibly talented. I'll watch him play again. Stephen Jordan and Cesc Fàbregas in their early days were unplayable but they couldn't. I stand by that and there were different reasons that I won't go into, but different reasons why and if I wasn't as harsh or if he took it with him to try to poke him out of how he was being and if I put my arm around him more, it could have been a difference, listen, you may have never changed it, I don't know, but maybe we could have done different things to help you or to influence others to help you, maybe and I could say that.

Also about other players in the locker room who have come and gone, but it's all a learning curve anyway, so if I have my time again, I would definitely hug someone. I'm talking about a learning curve we're on. To end with a few really quick questions, yes, the first one is: what advice would you give to a young Rio who is just starting his life once again? What advice would you give to a young man, we're a lanky little guy, Rio who wanders around and picks him out with his big balloon backpack I don't know, man, I wouldn't change a thing that happened, that's the other cliché thing he says, but He just wouldn't change, he wouldn't train you, would you tell him to enjoy the journey a little? yes, sorry, good shout, oh it's yours, that was brilliant, but you didn't know you had decided to win, you were a nobody on the site, it's all about you when I won, it was a relief, yes, I didn't win and, yes , this is incredible.

If it was a victor, we would just beat Sun, so to know what that means, you didn't enjoy winning as a tag team, you took the pressure off for a couple of days. The pressure was relieved because we were a relief, so we enjoyed one more moment at a time, but I always say good. How would that have affected me if Morden won? Why would I want to play like this if the winner's mentality is very good again? So are you happy? Yes, I'm probably the happiest. I could say that I'm probably the happiest I've ever been, so if someone was listening to this and wanted to access happiness, what advice would you give them?

Speak, communicate, you know, simple, which sounds simple, but, that they, I have become a much better communicator, it will sound a little bit like Nath. but I have become a better person, I have probably communicated more since I met Kate because she helped me do it. She is a good communicator and sometimes you need to influence a few people to show you what happens if you do with just a little. a little or modify a little there are improvements to be made and communicating with friends and family to resolve situations negative situations turns them into positive areas where you are not sure about certain things you talk and always feel like you are looking to feel better hear how I saw you go through that journey for the last five or six years, to hear you sit here and say that you are the happiest you have ever been is absolutely wonderful.

My last question for you is how important legacy is to you. As I told you before when we sat down, my biggest goal in life now, apart from family and stuff, is that yes, you played football, you want to be appreciated for what you've done and respected for what you've done. , but I want that to happen again in another other life you say your story isn't over, it's just beginning yes, there's another story, another chapter somewhere where people really say wow, we're done, didn't you realize that he thought he was behind it or he was involved in it, so that's what I want.

I want to be successful in another sphere in another industry and what will it be. A golden rule for living a

high

-

performance

life is to apply self-correction every day, apply it yourself and it's not one there. You can't be one and set goals, set goals, what is the path, that path along the way, the journey may change a little, but set a path to reach a goal and you will have something to aim for and move forward, thank you . Thank you very much guys, adapters, friend and brilliant.